Improving Learning Experience - Essay Example

My experience at the university was totally different and the atmosphere present there was brilliant. I learned a lot of things during my first year and the most important of them was to take up responsibility. Since, I was away from home and came to a different culture adapting and molding me according to the environmental was the toughest task. I was able to face all the difficulties that arose by being away from home and fighting those helped me move ahead in my carrier. During this journey I was able to make friends from different culture which helped me understand the other culture better and broadened by horizon of thinking. It was a totally new experience for me and I was amazed by the manner I was able to grow in the pressure and develop myself in the new culture. Living away from home was a difficult task in the beginning as I had to be totally dependent on myself. This was not the case back home as my parents were there to look after me. Also looking after the resources was a difficult proposition for me as controlling the expenses was difficult in the beginning. This used to put me under tremendous pressure as I used to run out of money. Slowly, with the passage of time I gained the required experience and belief and was able to manage my funds properly. I was also able to plan and ensure that I was responsible for all my acts and took steps after pondering the effects that could have arisen from it. This helped me gain in self confidence and also helped me to shape my pattern of working. I also realized that staying at the comfort of the house was easier in comparison to staying at the university. Being an international student I faced the difficulty associated with language, culture and adaptability. This was a major hindrance in my path and used to put additional pressure on me. Further understanding the transportation system in UK was a problem compared to my home country where I was accostomed to it. Slowly, I was able to understand it but still face some problems associated with the culture. The wide variation in the mentality of the people took me by shock and after a period of some time I was able to understand it to a certain extent. Living in a different culture was a totally different experience for me. When I look back at the past year I visualize the difficulties I had to face due to differences in culture and slowly I gained knowledge about the culture and adjusted myself accordingly. To be true it was very difficult because the weather of UK is totally different from my own country. This was a difficult proposition for me as my body took time to adapt to the climatic change. Further, being in a culture with no old friends and relatives was very tough. It made me lonely and living without the known faces was tough. Also, the fact that I hadn’t had thought the life to be so difficult made me ponder whether I was correct in choosing the university but later with the passage of time I was able to understand the culture and adapted to the situation thereby making new friends. Having friends helped me at the university as it gave me an opportunity to socialize. This kept me busy and didn’t make me ponder about the changes I was undergoing. This was after few months at the stay in the university. In the beginning it was difficult as I had no friends and I was unable to understand whether I would be able to make friends in the new culture. Slowly with the passage of time and association with different activities helped me in making friends. I was able to make new friends by socializing in gyms, canteens and class where I found people who were able to share a common feeling and it helped me to develop my friendship thereby removing the loneliness which I had felt early on in the university. An interesting fact to note here is that the manner of socializing in the university was totally different with the manner I socialized before entering the university. Before entering the university I use to spend substantial amount of time with my relatives and families. Friends were also a part of the social activity but the proportions of time spend there was less. In the university I used to spend the majority of time with the new friends who I have recently found. There was a total transformation in the activities also. In the days before entering the university most of the time was spend in-house but the situation now was totally opposite and the majority of the time was spend outside or in the university. A major change was thus witnessed in the socializing pattern which also brought about a change in the outlook. Another interesting fact to note is the change in interest. Before joining the university I used to spend a substantial amount of time in watching television, playing games and chatting. This was a major transformation that came to me. I used to spend most of the time either with my friends in the university or the library. I had developed the habit of reading books. Since, I was lonely early on when I joined the university so the spend time I started reading books which gradually built a passion towards it thereby helping me spend a majority of time in libraries. It was very difficult for me to integrate the different responsibilities of studying in a university. I personally feel that an additional personnel support is required. This helps to keep you motivated at the same time it helps to ensure that the finances and resources are managed properly. This would have helped me spend time on other important issues and would have provided the required time to study. This would have also affected the decision making as I could have consulted with the person on important matters and took their advice. On the other hand this would not have garnered a feeling of responsibility and would have made be reliant on someone else for my activities. I choose Accounting and Finance as my major area of study as I believe it will help me in the long run. Since, I come from Saudi Arabia where there is a high demand for people who have studied accounting and finance so pursuing this as my major would help me find a job easily in my home country. Further, I have a passion towards accounting and finance and also the desire of my family to take a course which helps me in the long run played a part. Overall, I feel that choosing accounting and finance will help me shape my carrier and will help me to take up major responsible position in the company. I realize that picking up accounting and finance will help me. In the first year of my study at the university I was able toi understand the basic and important elements that will help me build my carrier around it. Till now I am satisfied with the developments I have seen in myself by picking the course. I believe its matching with the expectations and vision with which I have joined the university and the course. This will further get clearer during the course as I will be able to understand it better which will help me to shape the pattern of learning. This will help me achieve my future expectations and will help to shape my carrier and bring about the change with which I had joined the university. Accounting and finance has been a new subject for me. I had very little idea about the course but I did hear about it from my family and friends. This made me pick up the course. During my first year I gathered important knowledge about the subject. Being new multiplied the problem for me as understanding and grasping all the things taught in class took me time. I had to go back and revise it continuously so that I was able to understand the subject better and retention was better. Slowly, I was able to improve faster than my imagination and grasping the teachings became easier. Also gathering important facts about the subjects from other sources helped me to reduce the magnitude of the challenges to manageable level. Taking the course in accounting and finance has helped and developed my learning in different quarters. This has taught me the art of time management. As the subject was new so I had to spend considerable amount of time to understand it at the same time I had to manage my other subjects and things. Being alone I learned the art of time management and the different things that have to be done to ensure maximum efficiency. The last semester at the university also taught me the art of using the facilities like the library, gym and others to the fullest extent possible. This also helped me to visit the teachers frequently and solve my doubts with them. This has developed in me a feeling of being responsible and making use of the infrastructure to develop the learning. The learning I have acquired will help me in the second semester as the pressure will increase. During this period I will have to cope with tougher subjects and stringent time management policies. Being able to develop this art in the first semester will help me to ensure that I am able to use it and develop my learning. Also the knowledge gained in the first semester will help me. Since, I have a clear idea about the topic so it will be easy for me to grasp the new additional points. This will help me to pick up the topics easily and the ability to use the surrounding infrastructure like library and teachers will help me to ensure that I am able to deliver the best possible results. Proper time management skills got reflected on my performance. I was able to secure good marks and the highest mark that I secured was 76 in Business Data Analysis Module. The greatest bwnefit of this course was that I was well acquainted with this course. I had studied this course or module in high school so I was able to understand this subject better. The fact that I had good knowledge about this module and studying this module again mad me revise the subject helped to ensure that there was clarity which resulted in high marks. In comparison to the other modules like finance and accounting which were totally new to me the marks was not as high as Business Data Analysis Module. One of the prime reason for the other modules not providing the same marks as Business Data Analysis Module was that they were totally new to me. I was studying finance and accounting for the first time so it took me time to understand the subject and grasping was a bit slow. Slowly, with the passage and understanding of the subject I feel that I will be able to secure good marks in the other modules as well which will finally get reflected in my overall marks. I can look forward to a similar performance in other modules by enforcing the learning gathered from Business Data Analysis Module. I can ensure that I read the new modules often so that I become acquaint with the subject and it becomes easy for me to remember the same and use it to ensure good marks. Also proper time management skills by spending a higher proportion of my time on the new modules will help me to understand the subject better. Along with it making use of the infrastructure like library and teachers my understanding of the module will increase and this will help me to increase my knowledge of the module. This will help to ensure that I secure good marks in the other module and repeat my performance in semester two. My performance in the first semester was due to the facilities that I was able to use in the university. The ability to use the infrastructure like the library which could have been accessed 24 hours made it easy for reading the different books available. Along with it the X- streaming where I was able to use the lecturers’ notes and videos helped me to look back into the topic studied again and again. Also the important materials which were uploaded by the lecturers’ in the module helped me to access those thereby improving the knowledge about the subject and helping me secure good marks. Along with the infrastructure there were many factors which impeded towards the success. My desire to learn the new subject and gather important and relevant information regarding the module by looking at other sources helped me to ensure better learning mechanism. My vision to learn accounting and finance so that I was able to get a good job back home gave me an extra push to learn the subject. This along with the backing and support which I received from my family and relatives helped me take the course seriously and was a major point which which acted towards my success. The total supporting environment along with the group of friends whom I have found gave me the motivation to study and succeed. The learning from semester one will benefit me greatly in semester two. The courses I had taken in semester one are the foundation of the course and a clear understanding of those courses will help me to grasp the modules better in semester two. Also the manner in which the courses have been designed will facilitate the learning from one semester to be developed in the next thereby helping to ensure that I am able to garner better results. Along with it the availability of the lecturers notes and slides with me that can be looked into any time will help me to clear my doubts if it arises thereby helping to improve my learning mechanism in semester two and develop the understanding of the different modules better. My planning for the present future is to pick up a job as I am having a vacation after the semester. Doing the job will help me use my learning on the job. This will help me to understand the subject better and will also evoke in me a desire to learn the subject. This will also help me to understand the pressure and situation that I will have to face when I take the job in the future and it will prepare me for the same. The job will also provide me an avenue to earn. This will help to take care of my finances and will ensure that I am able to meet my expenses myself. This will invoke a spirit of selfness and help me to be more responsible. This will also have an overall influence on my overall outlook and will prepare me for the tougher future responsibilities well in advance thereby helping me in the long run. During my first semester in the university I found some significant things which helped me to improve the learning and facilitated me to take up the course more seriously. Firstly, the library which was open for 24 hours and had different volumes of books which ensured that I was able to use it according to my requirements. Secondly, the X-stream which allowed me to visualize the lecturers’ class notes. This was a great helping hand because looking at the videos gave me a sense of belonging and created an atmosphere where I felt I was studying in the class. Finally, the availability of teachers to solve the queries helped me immensely. The teachers were very helpful and solved even the minute of problems thereby increasing the knowledge of the subject. The overall surroundings were so influential that it helped to shape my learning behavior. Apart from the most significant thing the most difficult thing for me was the language. Since, I came from a different country so understanding the language English was a time taking process. It took substantial amount of time to understand the meaning of the words. This along with the ability to manage time for both the personal and institutional reasons was a difficult proposition for me. Also coming to a different culture with being self reliant was a difficult task. Getting accustomed to a different culture and the life at university took time to adjust. This along with the loneliness at the university and managing all the resources I was a process which I was not accustomed to. The overall difficulties were immense and slowly with the passage of time I was able to understand and get hold of the situation which helped me to come out of this situation. The easiest thing for me in the university was making new friends. Since, most students who had joined the university belonged to some other country and were looking towards making new friends to remove their loneliness. So finding a new friend was easy. The fact that most students were new and to remove their loneliness were on a look out for friends so finding one was comparatively easy. The learning that I garnered during the first semester were great. I could further have improved my learning my taking steps which helped to improve my learning. This could have been done through proper time management skills by using my time on important matters. Also gathering information from outside the course would have helped me to understand the course better and garnered better understanding. Another aspect which could have helped me is by learning English early on so that I was able to gain the required fluency and skills which could have helped me understand the language better. Being a bit more flexible and understanding the external environment and molding myself quickly to the required condition of the culture and university would have helped me immensely to develop my learning skills and would have helped me to improve my experience of learning. This is an important aspect that will help to develop myself in the second year. Since, I have become accustomed to the culture and external environment so I can make use of it to develop my learning experience. Also gathering important knowledge about the subject which will be developed further will help to improve my learning. I have also developed the art of being self reliant and look toward accomplishing things all myself will give me more time to be spent on studies. I have transformed myself to the changes prevalent in the country, university and made use of the existing facilities. This has increased my awareness about the surroundings which I will use in my second year. This will help to improve my understanding in the second year and will help to develop my learning experience. I can still improve on this in my second year which will help to improve my learning experience. I can improve my time management skills which will help to ensure that more time can be invested in studies. Also reading the subject before hand will help me to understand my knowledge about the subject and gets the doubt solved in the class itself. This will also help to ensure that I am able to understand better and enhance my experience. Using the facilities available in the university better will help me to improve my knowledge and develop my understanding about the subject thereby helping to enhance my understanding about the subject and will improve my learning experience. Read More